Soggetti urbani [Urban subjects]

Renzo Piano

Declaring that knowing how to work with one’s hands “is a way of safeguarding creative freedom,” internationally acclaimed architect Renzo Piano has been constructing some of the world’s most iconic buildings since the early 1970s. Born into a family of builders in the port city of Genoa, he brings an ingrained focus on craft and a passion for the transformative power of light to his projects. These include the visionary Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, the Kansai International Airport, Osaka, and the state-of-the-art New York Times Building, New York, among numerous museums and expansions. He formed his own practice, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, in 1981. Piano’s sensitivity to light, and its potential to shape an otherwise solid mass, distinguishes his approach. His structures are often airy, appearing as open spaces in an urban milieu or as organic extensions of natural landscapes.